


Where the Love-Light Gleams

by priorwalter



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, M/M, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/priorwalter/pseuds/priorwalter
Summary: “Come on, we have to make the head of the snowman. It’s the most important part, unless you want her to not have a brain,” Neil says, taking Andrew’s hand and half-dragging him to a patch of fresh snow.“She would take after you, then,” Andrew says. “Brainless.”Neil sticks his tongue out. “Have you ever made a snowman before? Or snowwoman, I guess.” Andrew shakes his head. "See, you have to make a little ball, and then you just start rolling it in the snow and it will stick. You try.”Andrew reluctantly takes over rolling the tiny boulder. “You cannot possibly find this exciting.”Neil glares. “It’s not about rolling the boulder, Andrew, it’s about the friends you make along the way.”**My fic for the winter AFTG exchange for @aminiyard!
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 15
Kudos: 148
Collections: AFTG Exchange Winter 2019





	Where the Love-Light Gleams

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for @aminiyard for the AFTG Christmas exchange! The prompt of theirs that I used was: ‘au where everything's good and nothing hurts and the foxes are just having a snow day’. I hope you enjoy! (HUGE ETERNAL INFINITE thank you to Asas for procrastinating writing with me and then bullying me into writing and planning this fic. Without you, this fic would still be an empty doc.)
> 
> Side note: The Foxes wouldn’t play in Michigan in the regular season because of the divisions, but like, suspension of disbelief? Thanks for your cooperation.

The Foxes’ last game before Christmas was on December the twenty-first. Now, it is the twenty-second, and Andrew is lying awake in Matt Boyd’s guest room, hesitant to move while Neil sleeps curled up against his side. He’s only just fallen back asleep; he woke up to go for a run, but Andrew convinced him to stay, if only to act as a space heater in the biting cold. 

(“We’re inside, Andrew. The heat is on and we have two blankets.”

“It’s freezing.”

“I’m sure that’s why you want me to stay.”)

The night before, Andrew, Neil, Nicky, and Aaron as well as the younger, newer Foxes played against the University of Michigan and lost by a slim margin. Andrew doesn’t particularly care; the new backliners are incapable of holding a racquet; if they wanted to win, they should have tried harder. Neil, for the first time, possibly ever, did not care about the loss; he was too excited to see Matt. Matt’s pro team plays in Detroit, so after the game, Andrew and his family drove over to Matt and Dan’s apartment. 

A knock sounds at the door to the guest room; Neil blinks awake, sleepy and soft. He cranes his neck to look at the door, but seems to get tired and give up halfway through, because his eyes drift shut and he presses his face into Andrew’s neck. 

“Neil?” Matt’s voice calls out, muffled through the door. “It’s nine o’clock.”

Neil sits bolt upright. “It’s nine o’clock?” He rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” 

Andrew props himself up on his elbows. “You were warming me up.”

Neil rolls his eyes. “You know I hate sleeping in.” 

Andrew raises an eyebrow. “And?” 

Neil scoffs and leans down for a kiss before getting out of bed and opening the door. Andrew tunes out Matt and Neil’s conversation, instead rolling into the space on the bed that Neil previously occupied in order to absorb the warmth. He closes his eyes and feels himself start to drift off before Neil sits down on the bed again. 

“C’mon, we have to get ready,” Neil says, tugging the duvet off of Andrew. 

Andrew snatches the covers back, flinching at the cold air on his skin. “To go where? Come back to bed.”

Neil smiles in a way that can only be described as fond; Andrew wants to look away, but can’t. “Were you listening at all? We’re going to meet Aaron and Nicky for brunch in a bit.” 

Aaron and Nicky are staying at a hotel, something for which Andrew is glad; he is not awake enough to deal with them. He is not awake enough to deal with Matt or Dan, either, but he supposes if he is sleeping in their guest bed, they are owed some courtesy. Out of the graciousness in his heart, he drags himself out of bed and into the shower. 

The hot water in the shower wakes him up, but he does not enjoy the shock of cold air when he leaves the washroom; Andrew has never loved the cold. He has never even liked it; tolerating it would be a gross exaggeration. If it were up to him, he would stay attached to Neil’s side until they landed back in South Carolina to keep warm. However, he is stranded here in Michigan with only a measly sweater to protect him from the biting, icy cold of the Boyd-Wilds apartment. 

“The heat is on,” Matt points out when Andrew begins to sip from the hot chocolate Neil left for him on the counter, probably made while Andrew was in the shower. “It’s not even that cold today.” 

Andrew doesn’t bother to respond to him, but he does glare over the rim of his mug. He finishes the hot chocolate quickly, and as he’s rinsing out his cup, Neil emerges from the hallway, skin pink from the shower. It makes his eyes stand out more. Neil gives him a quick kiss and immediately grimaces. “Too sweet,” he mutters, licking his lips. “Don’t know how you can stand it.” 

“Get a room,” Dan says with a grin. 

It has been a few years since Andrew was shy about his affection toward Neil, but it still makes him clam up when others comment on it, so he says in a flat voice, “When are we going.” 

“Now,” Matt says with a hurried glance at his phone. “A — Aaron says they’re on their way there.” 

“You only pronounce one of the As, Matt,” Neil says very seriously. “But I understand why you would forget his name.” 

Matt ignores him completely. “Bring a hat and mitts, it’s freezing out.” 

Andrew levels Matt with an unimpressed stare. “What hat and mitts do you expect us to bring?”

“I forgot you still live in the south,” Matt teases. “You don’t know the cold.”

Neil shakes his head. “This is nothing compared to when my mom and I lived in Montreal,” he says, and Matt and Dan get the sad, somber look on their faces they always do when Neil brings up his mother. Andrew rolls his eyes. “We lived in a shoebox apartment with almost no insulation, and then in a car for a while. January wasn’t fun. But I miss the snow.”

All Matt says in response is, “Well, we have extra stuff; you can borrow a pair of my mitts, and I think Dan has a couple extra hats.” His voice is stilted.

Neil sighs, exchanging an exasperated glance with Andrew. “Come on, are we going or what?”

**

The restaurant is crowded, being a breakfast place on a late Saturday morning, but luckily Nicky and Aaron have saved a booth for them. Andrew spots Aaron’s blond mop in the crowd, and beside it, pastel-dyed pale hair. 

“Allison!” Neil cries. “Renee! When did you get here?” 

Andrew will greet his friends in a moment, but for now, he drinks in the radiant smile on Neil’s face. His cheeks are already red from the cold, and his hair a mess from the toque Matt forced on him. Andrew looks at Neil, and he feels content. 

“Hello, Andrew,” Renee says after she greets Neil, Dan, and Matt. “It’s wonderful to see you.” 

“Hi, Renee. How are you?”

“I am doing well.” She grins, a mischievous sparkle in her eye. “Allison booked us a very nice hotel for the next few nights.”

Andrew frowns. “I don’t want to know.” 

Renee laughs. “Has Matt told you about his plans for the rest of the day?” Andrew shakes his head, and Renee raises her eyebrows. She refuses to say more on the subject, though, and Andrew is left wondering until the end of brunch.

Once everyone finishes their food and the general merriment has ceased, Matt announces, “Andrew, Neil, Nicky, Aaron, you may be wondering why I insisted that you all bring warm clothes today,” he begins in a grand voice. 

“I assume you’re dragging us out into the snow,” Aaron interrupts, “and I’m refusing.”

Matt deflates. “Come on, you have to. You’ve never experienced snow before. It’ll be fun. We’re going to the park, and it just snowed last night.”

Neil grabs Andrew’s sleeve. “You are coming,” he declares, intense blue eyes boring into Andrew’s before Andrew can protest. 

“I would rather hitchhike back to Palmetto than touch the snow,” Andrew says, though he already knows he’s going to give in. 

Neil pouts, and Andrew melts into putty. “Where’s your Christmas spirit? Don’t you want to play in the snow?” Andrew doesn’t reply, instead staring at the table. Neil kisses him on the cheek, and Andrew can feel his smile. 

Allison stage-whispers, “He’s so whipped.”

Neil narrows his eyes. “As if you’re any better.” The table bursts into laughter, Neil included. Andrew feels warm inside; Renee and Neil are smiling, and Aaron doesn’t look constipated for once. Maybe, just maybe, the rest of the day won’t be as terrible as he thought.

**

The snow is as terrible as Andrew thought and more. It’s cold and wet. The mittens that he borrowed from Dan are not made for getting wet, so his hands feel numb. On top of the thick layer of white already on the ground, heavy snowflakes swirl around them. It’s awful.

(Except when the snowflakes land on Neil’s eyelashes. That is, perhaps, slightly okay)

Nicky has roped Aaron into a snowball fight, while Renee is helping Neil build a snowman. Allison and Matt appear to be building a snow fort, though its structural integrity is so appalling that Andrew hesitates to call it a fort. Dan stands beside Andrew, surveying the chaos before them. 

“I don’t like the cold either, but don’t tell Matt,” Dan says with a conspiratorial grin. “It’s not so bad today, though. It’s pretty.” 

Andrew shrugs. “It’s wet.” 

“Neil looks like he’s having fun,” she points out, and she’s right. Renee and Neil are struggling to push the second boulder of their snowman, but Neil keeps losing his footing in the snow trying to shove it forward and falling onto the ground. Andrew bites back a smile. 

“I think Matt’s snow fort is going to collapse any minute,” Andrew replies. Almost as soon as he finishes his sentence, Allison places a particularly heavy boulder of snow on the farthest wall, and a third of their fort falls to the ground. 

“Dan, come help us rebuild!” Matt calls out. “We need your assistance, or Fort Foxhole will be overrun by scoundrels.” 

“This scoundrel is going to use your bricks as ammunition any minute now,” Nicky replies, puffing. In his distraction, he is hit by another snowball; Aaron dives behind Neil and Renee’s snowman while Nicky grabs a chunk of snow out of Allison’s hand to retaliate. 

Andrew watches from a distance, feeling a heavy sort of something in his chest. His family is here, or most of them; Kevin’s last game before Christmas has not happened yet, so he is flying in later to spend Christmas with the Foxes. Andrew thinks he might only try to correct Neil’s snowman-building form anyway. 

The feeling in Andrew’s chest is not bad; it is warm and content. It is hot chocolate on a cold morning and bright blue eyes on gray mornings. It is an ugly fox-ear hat on beautiful red hair against the blindingly white snow.

“Andrew, come help us,” Neil says. He and Renee are struggling to lift the middle part of the snowman onto its base. Andrew makes his way through the deep snow until he reaches them. The ball of snow is not as heavy as he expected; he suspects that Neil may have acted weaker on purpose to draw Andrew over. 

Once the middle of the snowman is secured, Renee says, “Oh dear, I think I should go help Nicky. Aaron is a surprisingly good marksman.” She disappears without another word, and Andrew is left alone with Neil. 

“Come on, we have to make the head. It’s the most important part, unless you want her to not have a brain,” Neil says, taking Andrew’s hand and half-dragging him to a patch of fresh snow. 

“She would take after you, then,” Andrew says. “Brainless.”

Neil sticks his tongue out. “Have you ever made a snowman before? Or snowwoman, I guess.” When Andrew shakes his head, Neil tugs on his arm so that Andrew crouches down beside him on the snowy ground. He begins to pack some snow into a tight ball. “See, you have to make a little ball, and then you just start rolling it in the snow and it will stick. You try.” 

Andrew reluctantly takes over rolling the tiny boulder. “You cannot possibly find this exciting.” 

Neil glares. “It’s not about rolling the boulder, Andrew, it’s about the friends you make along the way.” 

“So we’re friends, are we?” 

“Shut the fuck up.”

Andrew finishes the head of the snowwoman and hefts it onto the middle. Neil takes his hat off and sticks it on their creation’s head before finding some twigs to stand in for arms. “Her head’s a little crooked,” Andrew points out. 

“You hush, that’s our child,” Neil hisses. “She’s beautiful.” 

Suddenly, there sounds a scream, and Nicky runs in their direction with Allison close on his heels. Allison brushes close enough to Neil to push him into the newly-built snowwoman. Neil grabs Andrew’s sleeve just in time so that they both crash into their so-called daughter, crushing her into pieces. “SORRY,” Allison shouts from a ways away, not sounding sorry at all. 

Andrew rolls off of the wreckage of their snowwoman and Neil follows suit. They lie face-to-face in the cold, wet snow; Andrew feels warm, warm, warm. Neil’s nose is red from the chill, which is nothing if not an invitation for Andrew to kiss it. He does, and Neil giggles before kissing him for real. 

“Merry Christmas, Andrew,” Neil whispers, a grin splitting his face in two.

“Merry Christmas, Neil.”

**Author's Note:**

> I HOPE YOU LIKED IT! Comment, kudos, etc! I'm at carterchilcott.tumblr.com.


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